Contents

PART A: CONTEXT

Section 1 : Introduction

In June 2013 we published the
Play Strategy for Scotland: Our Vision,
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/publications/play-strategy-scotland-vision/,
which seeks to improve the play experiences of
all children and young people, including those
with disabilities or from disadvantaged backgrounds. It aims to
ensure all children and young people can access play opportunities
in a range of settings which offer variety, adventure and
challenge. They must be able to play freely and safely while
learning to manage risks and make choices about where, how and when
they play according to their age, stage, ability and
preference.

The fun and pleasure of playing is a vital part of a happy
childhood as well as being crucial to children's development as
individuals and members of society.

High quality play opportunities and provision of a physical and
social environment that supports play increase the likelihood of
improved outcomes for children and lessen the impact of factors
that lead to poorer outcomes.

The Vision aims to improve play experiences for all children and
addresses our obligations in relation to children's right to play
as set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the
Child. It is a Vision we can work towards together.

Parents and carers, as well as other adults concerned with
children's day-to-day experiences, have a vital role in encouraging
and facilitating play. Policy makers, planners and practitioners
have a collective responsibility to ensure play is embedded at the
heart of decision-making throughout our society and to provide the
catalyst for culture change.

The Play Strategy for Scotland: Our Vision is our first
national Strategy for play. Along with the Strategy, the Action
Plan aims to set out some of the practical steps towards realising
our Vision - we want to be able to deliver tangible
improvements.

In the Plan, we have identified outcomes and actions which have
been set in four domains. The domains are:

In the home

At nursery and school

In the community

Positive support for play

The actions are set in the short term (approximately 6-12
months), medium term (approximately 1-3 years) and long term (3
plus years). They are the first steps to achieving our long term
vision. Implementation plans will support this Action Plan and will
be kept under review as we work towards better play for all
children.

No one organisation or sector can achieve all that we want for
children's play. The Action Plan is relevant for all working for or
with children or whose work impacts on children's ability to
exercise their right to play. We hope that many more actions than
those identified here will be undertaken in order to improve all
our children and young people's play experiences.

Section 2 : Policy Context

Scotland's first national Play Strategy and Action Plan will
contribute directly to all of our National Outcomes and
specifically ensuring our children have the best start in life and
are ready to succeed, and our young people are successful learners,
confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible
citizens.

The Getting It Right For Every Child (
GIRFEC)
approach aims to have an individual child-centred approach which
targets the specific needs that a child has. This in turn allows a
more specific tailored support network to ensure that the child
gets the correct support when they need it.

Increasingly, across a range of policies, the Scottish
Government recognises that we must build on the strengths and
abilities that lie within all of our communities. We must work with
people and not do things to them. This philosophy is central to the
forthcoming Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill, which will open
up new ways for communities to determine their own futures.

The Strategy and Action Plan will complement our proposals in
the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill and further support
our three main social policy frameworks: the Early Years Framework,
Equally Well, and Achieving our Potential. These frameworks, along
with the Child Poverty Strategy for Scotland, outline our
commitment to collaborative working and investment at a national
and local level to tackle the long term drivers of poverty and
income inequality through early intervention and prevention.

'Improving outcomes and children's quality of life through play'
is one of the 10 elements of transformational change set out in The
Early Years Framework. It recognises that play is central to how
children learn, both in terms of cognitive skills and softer skills
around relating to other people. It also recognises that it is a
right and a fundamental part of children's quality of life.

Curriculum for Excellence aims to achieve a transformation in
education in Scotland by providing a coherent, more flexible and
enriched curriculum from ages 3 to 18. Free play has the potential
to contribute powerfully and positively to some of the most
significant areas of life in schools, nurseries, early years and
childcare. Curriculum for Excellence promotes playful learner-led
approaches in the classroom and outdoors.

Good Places Better Health (
GPBH), the
Scottish Government's Strategy on health and the environment, has
particular significance for play. The
GPBH approach
recognises that environment has a significant impact on the health
of Scotland's people and that action is required to create safe,
health-nurturing environments for everyone.

Planning for play requires a comprehensive approach with
collaboration across sectors and policy areas. Relevant sectors
include those dealing directly with children, such as health and
education, and also those concerned with housing, architecture,
parks, transport, environment and planning etc, all of which have a
significant impact on children's play opportunities. Planning Aid
for Scotland, for example, has a particular significance here.

Section 3 : What Do We Mean By...?

This section provides background to explain the terminology we
use throughout the Action Plan. There will always be a range of
perspectives on, and experiences of play, but this section aims to
establish a shared understanding from which to work towards the
Vision.

What age range does the Strategy apply to?

Article 31 establishes the right to play for all children and
young people up to the age of 18. The form play takes changes and
adapts throughout the course of childhood, and is individual to the
child or young person. As children grow older, their needs and
wants evolve. They will also explore progressively more
opportunities involving self-assessed risk-taking and challenge.
[1]

What do we mean by parents, carers and
families?

All those individuals and agencies involved in a parenting role
including parents, carers, grandparents, kinship carers, corporate
parents, childminders and others.

What do we mean by play?

In the Action Plan we are using the word 'play' in the way it is
described in the Play Strategy Vision, that is:

Play encompasses children's behaviour which is freely chosen,
personally directed and intrinsically motivated. It is performed
for no external goal or reward, and is a fundamental and integral
part of healthy development - not only for individual children
but also for the society in which they live.

The key characteristics of play are fun, uncertainty, challenge,
flexibility and non-productivity.
[1] Play can happen indoors or outdoors, with or without the
oversight of adults, in everyday spaces, in environments designed
for play and in places chosen by children and young people.

What do we mean by 'high quality play
opportunities'?

By its very nature 'high quality' is difficult to define, and
will look different in different circumstances and locations.
However, in terms of the provision of play opportunities and
environments, in general we might expect 'high quality
opportunities' to happen when:

the principles of the
UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child are put into practice

the environment provides stimulus for play to flourish

if adults are involved, they work to established ethical and
professional standards.

Of course, given the nature of play, children do have high
quality play
experiences outwith the view of adults and in
circumstances and locations that were not intended for play.

What do we mean by 'all children'?

Our Vision for play is for all children and young people in
Scotland. Children of all ages, stages and abilities should have
the opportunity to realise their right to play without
discrimination of any kind. However, many children face
attitudinal, environmental and institutional barriers to accessing
play opportunities and provision. The Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities Article 30 states that there is a State
responsibility to ensure that children with disabilities have equal
access with other children to participation in play, recreation,
sporting and leisure activities. Pro-active measures are needed to
remove the barriers and promote accessibility to, and availability
of, inclusive opportunities to participate in all these
activities.

What do we mean by 'early learning and
childcare'?

We are using 'early learning and childcare' to mean a service
for children under school age, which consists of education and
care, and which gives importance to interactions and other
experiences which support learning and development in a caring and
nurturing setting. This is the definition used in the Children and
Young People (Scotland) Bill.

What do we mean by 'school age childcare'?

School age childcare or Out of School Care (
OSC), is the
provision of a safe, caring environment offering a range of active,
stimulating and restful activities for school age children before
and after school and during holidays. Out of school care and
seasonal services take parental responsibility for the children in
their care. Services must register with, and are regulated by, the
Care Inspectorate and the workforce must be registered with and is
regulated by, the Scottish Social Care Services (
SSSC).

What do we mean by the play workforce and the play
sector?

The play workforce is made up of the people who facilitate play
opportunities as part of their professional role. Playworkers see
this role as supporting children and young people in the creation
of a space in which they can play. The play workforce includes
adults who facilitate play in a range of settings such as
playgroups, childminding settings, hospitals, residential settings,
school playgrounds and communities.

The play sector is made up of the organisations which support
children and young people's play on a number of levels, such those
which provide advice, information, training and funding; umbrella,
membership and regional infrastructure organisations; those
involved in the creation and upkeep of play environments,
etc.

Section 4 : Implementation Structure

Our overall goal for implementation is that a collective
responsibility for, and focus on, realising children's right to
play develops in Scotland, with a shared understanding of the roles
of government, health agencies, third sector, funders, private
sector, communities, individuals and media.

We need to take both a top down and bottom up approach to
achieving change.

A Play Strategy Implementation Group led by the Scottish
Government and made up of representatives of statutory bodies,
local authorities, third sector organisations and funders will be
established in order to support and monitor our progress.

This group will establish working groups to carry out some of
the specific actions that have been identified and tasked to a
group.

Partnership working is key to achieving the Vision for
children's play in Scotland. This should be underpinned by
environmentally, economically and socially sustainable approaches
to providing for play.

Children and young people's views must be taken into account and
their ideas and participation encouraged and supported.
Implementation of the Plan will open opportunities for children and
young people to participate and contribute in a range of ways.

In the same way that play runs as a thread through children's
daily experiences, there are many points at which the actions in
the four domains of this plan -
home, nursery and school, community, positive support for
play - overlap and support each other. This has to be
taken into account in implementing the Plan.

Section 5 : Vision, Principles and Outcomes

This section highlights the principles which underpin the Action
Plan

VISION

We want Scotland to be the best place to grow up. A nation which
values play as a life-enhancing daily experience for all our
children and young people, in their homes, nurseries, schools and
communities.

PRINCIPLES

In the home, at nursery and school, and in every community:

We should
value all children and young people

We should enable all children and young people to realise
their
right to play

All children and young people should have
space and
time to play (
The 'Sufficiency' Principle)

OUTCOMES

In the home

Our homes and family environments are places where children and
young people enjoy plentiful play opportunities, indoors and out,
appropriate to their age, stage, ability and preferences.

At nursery and school

All children and young people enjoy high quality play
opportunities, particularly outdoor free play in stimulating spaces
with access to nature, on a daily basis in school, nursery and
early learning and childcare.

In the community

All children and young people have sufficient time and space
(physical and social) for playing within their community and have
contact with nature in their everyday lives. Play is valued,
encouraged and supported in communities, as are providers of
community play opportunities such as out of school care,
playgroups, therapeutic and specialist settings and community
champions of play.

Positive support for play

Scotland provides a positive environment for play through: a
professional workforce; strong and visionary leadership; a
well-resourced third sector and infrastructure; and a supportive
and informed media.